


Standing in the Hall of Fame

by crutchie_394



Series: Medda Crusade [3]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Also for the record, Gen, Harassment, Hurt/Comfort, Modern Era, from some weird guy, he's a Child leave him alone, i made him up but i Despise Him, i mean it as plaTONIC, if anyone dares to interpret that as romantic i'll eat their toes, jack is Just a Babey, medda is famous, when i tag medda larkin & jack kelly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 20:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18269006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crutchie_394/pseuds/crutchie_394
Summary: Jack had barely turned the corner from the backstage door before he collided with a man wandering down the hallway.“Oh!” the man said, grabbing his hat in surprise as he stumbled backwards and his eyes flew down to Jack. A look of surprise washed over his face for a split second before he plastered on a smile.~~~Medda's gotten more popular over the years from the work she's put into her theatre. Sometimes, that's not always a good thing when it comes to having a kid.





	Standing in the Hall of Fame

**Author's Note:**

> i had no idea what to title this don't JUDGE ME
> 
> but yeah anyway here's this!! it's been a hot minute since i wrote anything for my medda crusade series. hope u guys like it!
> 
> trigger warning: child harassment, creepy guy, slight mentions of past abuse, slight violence

It was no surprise that Medda was at least a _little_ well-known. She wasn’t famous, and she didn’t have an entourage of fans following her when she walked down the street. But she owned her own theater, and the seats were usually full on the weekends. That earned her at least a few looks of recognition.

Jack was happy for her, honestly. She was doing what she loved, and he was grateful that she let him help at all by bringing him into the theater to help with painting. Still, it meant that by the time she got him out of the Refuge, there were at least a few articles and tabloids online with headlines like _Medda Larkin’s Love Child_ and _Little Kid Hits the Stage!_ Sometimes it was fun to tease them, but most of the time they were just annoying. Medda had tried her best to keep him out of the spotlight for privacy’s sake, but he’d promised her it was fine. He’d had worse, and a few photos online wouldn’t kill him.

* * *

 

As soon as the backstage door opened and Medda stepped through, still panting a little from the adrenaline of the stage, Jack looked up at her with a wide grin.

“Great show, everybody!” Medda said, pulling her hat off and wiping some sweat off her forehead. The pride on her face matched Jack’s smile. “Completely sold out! That ain’t happened in weeks.”

“Well, with those new songs, I’m surprised it’s not happenin’ every night,” said a man on tech crew. He chuckled. “We’ll sell out for the next month if you keep pulling those out of your -“

“Hey, watch it,” Medda admonished, jerking her head towards where Jack was sitting. “He’s only been here a few months. Don’t ruin him just yet.”

The man smiled guiltily and tipped his baseball cap. “Sorry, ma’am.”

Jack took that as his cue that it was okay to step into the conversation, and he slid off the chair he was sitting in and walked up behind Medda, hesitantly wrapping his arms around her torso.  
  
“You did good, Mama.”

Medda twisted around, smiling as soon as she recognized his voice. That was a nice thing she did that no one else had ever done, and Jack hoped she never stopped.  
  
“Oh, I can’t take all the credit, baby,” she said, kissing the top of his head. “That set piece you helped the crew with? The whole crowd loved it!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack said. “Hey, uh, do you wanna go on an ice cream run?”

“If that’s what you want, honey,” Medda said. “I’ve got a few things to clean up back here, then we can do that and get home and get some sleep. Wait in the hallway for me, okay?”  
  
Jack nodded, letting her squeeze him one more time before letting her go and walking backwards to the door. He waved to the crew, earning choruses of “Bye, Jackie!” before turning the handle and stepping out.

He’d barely turned the corner from the backstage door before he collided with a man wandering down the hallway.

“Oh!” the man said, grabbing his hat in surprise as he stumbled backwards and his eyes flew down to Jack. A look of surprise washed over his face for a split second before he plastered on a smile.

“Sorry, didn’t see you there,” he said. “I was just looking for, uh, the dressing rooms.” He gave Jack a second glance, probably taking in his paint-stained shirt and mussed hair. “Say, why’re you back here? You know this place is off limits, kid.”

 _I could tell you the same thing, pal,_ Jack thought. The man was pale and his cheeks were a little too flushed. His stomach was bulging under his tan suit and bright red tie. His hair was thin on the sides of his head and he was wearing a fedora that he wasn’t pulling off. In his head, Jack was running through a mental list of Medda’s tech crew and the guy’s face wasn’t popping out at him. He wasn’t familiar at all, and that was setting off all the alarms in Jack’s head.

“Um, I’m Medda’s -”

Before Jack could finish, the man suddenly snapped his fingers.

“Wait a minute! You’re Medda Larkin’s boy, aren’t you?” He leaned in to get a closer look and Jack wrinkled his nose at the stench on his breath. “Yes, you are! You’re the one she adopted. I read about you online.”

Jack decided now wasn’t the best time to correct him about still being in the foster system. The man’s fake smile was putting him on edge, and his fight and flight instincts were itching to kick in. His eyes darted to the backstage door. Could he book it and hide out in the dressing rooms?

Before he could make his grand escape, the guy thrust a hand at him

“I’m James,” he said. “James, uh, Colton. How do you do?”

Jack didn’t shake his hand. “Hi.”

James retracted his hand, awkwardly clapping them together. “Well, now that we’re here, let me ask you something,” he said, changing the topic as quickly as the conversation had started. “Do you think you could show me where backstage is?”

Jack blinked up at him. “Sorry, what?”

“Backstage, kid,” James said. His smile was looking more grim. “I’d like to say hi to your, uh, your mom.”  
  
“Um, I don’t -”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” James said, looking a little more impatient as Jack continued to give him a blank stare. “I knew her in high school! We were close friends. I’m sure she would be happy to see me.” He leaned in again, just a couple inches from Jack’s nose. “What do you say, hm?”

“Um. No.”

James’ smile dropped completely from his face. His eyebrows furrowed. “Listen, kid, you don’t get a say in who Medda’s talkin’ to,” he said, as if trying to explain something to a two-year-old. “Why don’t you just -”

Jack shrugged. “Sorry, mister,” he said. “I don’t know ya, and I’m just a dumb kid, right? I ain’t supposed to talk to strangers and you ain’t -”  
  
James grabbed his collar.

“ _Listen,_ kid,” he repeated, quickly going beet red. “I swear to God, you know what I went through to get back here tonight? If you don’t show me where the damn door is, I’ll -”

“Hey, l-lemme go!” Jack said, squirming as James shook his collar. Call him crazy, but after living in a kids’ prison for half a decade and getting used to being thrown around like a ragdoll by the guards, he didn’t want a random man he didn’t know tossing him around. “Put me down, _help!_ Leave me _alone,_ Medda, I need help -!”

“Oh, what is your problem, boy?” James snapped. “What, are you fresh out of a boot camp or something? Just _calm down_ and bring me to Medda’s dressing room or wherever the hell she is and I’ll let you go!”

Jack couldn’t breathe all of a sudden, and he felt as if the man was pushing him into a tiny box that he couldn’t escape from, and his heart was beating faster and _where was Medda -_

“What’s goin’ on out here?”

As soon as the backstage door opened, James’ hands flew away as if the grip he had on Jack’s collar had burned him. Jack went stumbling back and crashed into Medda, who was standing right behind him.

“Medda Larkin!” James said, patting himself down, flustered. He stuck on another easy-going grin. “Didn’t expect you over in this part of the theater.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” Medda said. She put two hands on Jack’s shoulders, providing silent comfort. “Now would you mind explaining what was happenin’ out here?”

“Oh, nothing,” James said, waving his hand as if brushing it off. “Me and your boy were just having a little chat -“

“Looks to me like you were shakin’ a kid like you were tryin’ to unscrew his head,” Medda said, cutting him off sternly. Jack almost never heard her take on the tone in her voice, but when she did, it could make Snyder himself tremble.

“No, of course not!” James said hastily.  “I was just telling Jack here what good friends we were in high school. I thought I might drop in -“

Medda cut him off again. “Funny,” she said, her hands squeezing Jack’s shoulders tighter. “I don’t remember going to clown school and making friends with any bozos like you.”

“Oh, well... don’t you remember?” James said, looking a little more desperate to salvage the situation by the minute. Jack couldn’t blame him. “We had English together! And we had that acting class in senior year! I just thought I should pop into your show and see how you were doing. We were friends before your name hit the papers.” His beady eyes searched desperately around the hallway for a way out of the piercing glare Medda was giving him, and in a split second, he grabbed Jack’s arm and yanked him forwards. “The kid’ll tell you! We were just talking about it. Listen -”

“No, why don’t you listen to _me,_ hun,” Medda said, her voice crystal cool but still sharp enough to cut through the air. Brushing James’ hand off, she guided Jack back to her side and subconsciously pulled him close to her chest so that her arms were almost creating a human shield around him. “I don’t know if you’re reading those articles online, or if you even read at all, but he’s ten years old. Put your hands on him again and I’ll call it child harassment.”

James looked scared now, which was probably what Medda was going for. “Hang on, you can’t do that -”  
  
“Oh, I definitely can, doll. Now, what were you saying about being friends in school?” She looked thoughtful for a minute, then she snapped her fingers. “You know what, I don’t remember you, but I _do_ remember a nice boy that grew up to be a police officer.” She gave James a sugary smile. “Would you like me to give him a call?”

“No!” James said, throwing his hands out. “No, you have a good day, ma’am, uh, you’ve got a great boy, ah, I’ll see you another time.” His rambling followed him all the way out the door, echoing down the hallway as he ran towards the door to slip past security.

Medda watched him go, but the second he was around the corner, she turned to Jack without even a trace of a glare left on her face. She put a hand on top of his head and tilted it to look at his face.

“Are you okay?” she said, forehead creasing in concern. She wiped a splatter of paint off his chin. “If it were up to me, people like that wouldn’t be getting anywhere near my theater.”

“I’m fine, Mama,” Jack said, a smile growing on his face. Sure, he was a little shaken up, but he was happy. Medda cared about him enough to get involved and chase the guy off, and that was enough to make his heart grow three sizes. “Honest.”  
  
“I’m glad, baby,” she said, patting his head before taking her hand away. “I’ll talk to security about letting people past. Honestly, I’d swear they were sleeping on the job.”

Jack shrugged, following her as she put a hand on his lower back and pushed him towards the backstage door. Her makeup was washed off and she’d changed out of her costume, and Jack was relieved to go home. “Probably. You think they’d let the Delanceys in next time if you didn’t talk to ‘em?”

Medda frowned. “Those boys that keep pickin’ on your friends?” Jack nodded, and she sighed and shook her head. “I bet so.”

Jack giggled, hiding his smile in his sleeve. Her exasperation was so dramatic that she was probably just trying to get him to laugh, but it was definitely working. “Um, did you wanna go on that ice cream run?” he said. “If you want.”

“Honey, I think we both deserve it after tonight.”

**Author's Note:**

> wOO that's done
> 
> thanks for reading guys!! please leave a comment or kudos, it always makes my day! love u guys, bye!


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